[173] I leave, however, this question to the judgment of my readers, who will also decide on the assertion of Mr. Mill, that "Clive, on beholding an opening for exploits both splendid and profitable in Bengal, overlooked all other considerations, violated his instructions, and remained." This unqualified assertion appears to be a gratuitous assumption of motives of action, in no degree borne out or warranted by the facts of the case.
[174] In 1753 gomastahs (or agents) were sent to several parts of the country, where the cloths for the Company's investment were manufactured.
[175] The name of this messenger was Narraindass. He was brother to the Nabob's head spy.
[176] Orme, from whom we have taken the above facts, adds, "His (Omichund's) brother-in-law, Hazarimul, who had the chief management of his affairs, concealed himself in the apartments of the women until the next day, when the guard, endeavouring to take him, was resisted by the whole body of Omichund's peons and armed domestics, amounting to three hundred. Several were wounded on both sides before the fray ended; during which the head of the peons, who was an Indian of high caste, set fire to the house; and, in order to save the women of the family from the dishonour of being exposed to strangers, entered their apartments and killed, it is said, thirteen of them with his own hand, after which he stabbed himself, but, contrary to his intention, not mortally."
[177] Omichund received, upon the spot, one half of this amount: the date of the payment of the remainder was deferred, and it was probably to gain time to recover this sum, that he created those delays in the proceedings of the confederates, of which Mr. Watts accused him.
[178] Purneah is a province of Bengal.
[179] Orme, vol. ii. p. 182.
[180] Lord Clive's evidence goes to prove, that Admiral Watson did not object to his name being put by Mr. Lushington to the fictitious treaty; and his knowledge of the transaction, at the period it occurred, is established by the direct testimony of Mr. Cooke, Secretary to Government, who stated, "That, after the battle of Plassey, he waited upon Admiral Watson with a message from the Select Committee: that, among other things, the fictitious treaty was mentioned in conversation; and that the Admiral said he had not signed it, but left them to do as they pleased."—Parliamentary Reports, vol. iii. p. 152.
[181] One month after Omichund was informed of the fictitious treaty, Clive, in a letter to the Committee at Calcutta, requests their support to enable Omichund to perform his contract for the supply of saltpetre at Patna: and in a subsequent letter (dated August 6th, 1757) to the Secret Committee of the Directors, after stating that he had recommended Omichund to pay a visit of devotion to Maulda, he adds, "He is a person capable of rendering you great services, therefore not wholly to be discarded." These notices of this man do not imply that his reason was, at this period, so much affected as might be concluded from the perusal of Orme's narrative.
[182] History of India, vol. iii. p. 170.